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College of Arts and Sciences

Monsignor Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture Features National Interfaith Advocate Rabbi Noam Marans Discussing 'God’s Gifts and Calling' Building on Nostra Aetate  

OesterreicherIn celebration of the Fifty-First Anniversary of Vatican Council II, Seton Hall's Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies will host the Twenty-Third Monsignor John M. Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture on Thursday, November 3, from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m. in the Beck Rooms on the First Floor of the Walsh Library.

The annual memorial lecture at Seton Hall celebrates the strengthening of Catholic-Jewish relations and remembers Monsignor Oesterreicher's commitment to the fostering of interreligious dialogue through his work on Vatican Council II's statement of goodwill in Nostra Aetate, the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions." Monsignor Oesterreicher, a Papal Chamberlain who founded the Institute of Judeo-Christian Studies at Seton Hall in 1953, was born to a Jewish family in what was then Austria and converted to Catholicism. His mother and father perished in the Holocaust.

This year's event will feature the American Jewish Committee's (AJC) Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations Rabbi Noam Marans, who will discuss "The Vatican Document of December 10, 2015, God's Gifts and Calling, Builds on Nostra Aetate."

In his 1970 reflection on Jewish-Christian relations, "The Bridge: Brothers in Hope," Monsignor Oesterreicher said of Nostra Aetate: "The Council's Statement brought a tremendous blessing to the Church: it let her be her true self."

In a lecture during a conference in May 2015 at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Rabbi Marans said, "Nostra Aetate transformed not only Catholic-Jewish relations and wider Christian-Jewish relations but even the course of Jewish history, and all for the better."

As the Director of Interreligious and Intergroup Relations, Rabbi Noam Marans oversees national interfaith outreach, dialogue and advocacy to enhance mutual understanding, freedom of religious expression and support for the State of Israel and Middle East peace for the AJC.

His keynote presentation at the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate in Washington, D.C. in May 2015 was published in Pim Valenberg's (ed.), Nostra Aetate: Celebrating 50 Years of the Catholic Church's Dialogue with Jews and Muslims (Catholic University Press, 2016) and his "The Pope Francis Effect and Catholic-Jewish Relations" was published in Studies in Christian-Jewish Relations 2015, Vol. 10, Issue 1.

Rabbi Marans was also a participant in the anniversary celebration in Rome in October 2015 and was an organizer of the biennial conference of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations in Warsaw, Poland from April 4-7, 2016.

Father Lawrence E. Frizzell, Director of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies and the organizer of this year's Oesterreicher Memorial Lecture, calls upon members of the community to join in reflection on Nostra Aetate, the work of Monsignor Oesterreicher and Rabbi Marans so "we can express and live our faith in a way that fosters justice and peace in a complex world."

The event is free and open to the public, however, registration is encouraged by contacting Lawrence Frizzell or calling (973) 761-9751. 

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